FinEquity Tools Workshop: Using Financial Diaries to Analyze the Women's Market
Sex-disaggregated data is essential for product design, monitoring, and to understand the impact of financial inclusion interventions on women's lives. Join FinEquity for an interactive workshop where MicroSave Consulting will share how they applied financial diaries research to their work with women-led micro and small enterprises (WMSEs) in Kenya. Financial diaries are a type of research methodology that collects data about how people manage money and provides insights into this practice.
This research surfaced constraints that women traders in open-air and cross-border markets – two often overlooked groups among WSMEs – faced when accessing and using digital financial services. MicroSave then used this research to collaborate with financial service providers to design more relevant digital financial services for the traders.
Wholesale and retail trade makes up 60% of business in Kenya (approximately 3 million business owners). Of these, approximately 2 million business owners are women traders and about 32% (~650,000) operate from open-air markets. Additionally, around 30 to 40% of Africa’s regional trade is made up of informal and cross-border trade, which provides employment and livelihood opportunities to low-income and low-skilled women in the border districts of Kenya. However, women traders are not monolithic. They comprise different categories and different segments, each with their own unique needs and circumstances. MicroSave will guide us through the steps of their research approach where they analyzed 6,000+ transactions. They will share insights from Kenya, and how they applied the data to enhance the quality of digital financial services for women traders.
We will also hear from L-IFT, who have used a financial diaries approach to better understand segments of the women’s market in Myanmar and Rwanda, to develop more relevant products, and to tweak existing products and services.
About this event
Online
Rahul Chatterjee
Rahul Chatterjee is a Senior Manager in MSC’s Data and Insights team. His areas of expertise include financial diaries-based research, gender research, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), advanced data analytics, behavioral research, and data-driven program management. For the past 11 years, Rahul has worked with NGOs, CSR departments of corporates, donor agencies like BMGF, UNCDF, The World Bank, SPTF, AFI, Omidyar Network, IFC, FSD Uganda, CGAP, AGRA, ADBI, and policymakers such as the Government of India. Rahul has worked across various thematic areas including financial inclusion, digital financial services, gender, climate change, public health, livelihoods, and behavioral change.
Sonal Jaitly
Sonal Jaitly is a Senior Manager and Lead in MSC's Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) practice. Sonal has 10+ years of experience advancing financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment, gender and public policy. She has expertise in coalition building, leadership, and advocacy to address issues at the intersections of gender, finance, technology, and policy.
Anne Marie van Swinderen
Anne Marie van Swinderen is the founder and Managing Director of L-IFT BV, a research company specialized in financial diaries studies. Anne Marie has been active in financial inclusion for over three decades. Initially she worked on the supply side of microfinance, for instance as a Staff Economist at BRAC and supporting Vietnam’s Women’s Union setting up a microfinance institution. Since reading ‘Portfolios of the Poor’ she decided to dedicate herself to the demand side of microfinance and work on understanding disadvantaged, underserved groups and promoting wide-spread use of the financial diaries approach. She has conducted diaries studies in 16 countries across three continents.
Jenny Morgan
Jenny Morgan is FinEquity's Impact Pathways Thematic Lead. She has over 15 years of experience in inclusive financial growth, entrepreneurship and small business development, women’s economic empowerment, and resilience.